Plain
Seneca — The Senator

Look what he did to his own friend, Telesphorus from Rhodes. He cut off his nose and ears and kept him locked in a cell like some bizarre new animal. The man's hacked and ruined face made him barely look human anymore. Add starvation and the filthy squalor of wallowing in his own waste. His hands and knees grew hard and callused because the tiny space forced him to crawl instead of walk. His sides were covered in sores from scraping against the walls. He looked so horrifying and pitiful that his punishment had turned him into something monstrous — something you couldn't even feel sorry for. But as inhuman as the victim had become, the man who did this to him was even less human.

On Anger, Book 3, Section 17 Book 3 · 57 of 121
Human Nature Facing Hardship
Seneca — The Senator Original

Why, he mutilated his own friend, Telesphorus the Rhodian, cutting off his nose and ears, and kept him for a long while in a den, like some new and strange animal, after the hideousness of his hacked and disfigured face had made him no longer appear to be human, assisted by starvation and the squalid filth of a body left to wallow in its own dung! Besides this, his hands and knees, which the narrowness of his abode forced him to use instead of his feet, became hard and callous, while his sides were covered with sores by rubbing against the walls, so that his appearance was no less shocking than frightful, and his punishment turned him into so monstrous a creature that he was not even pitied. Yet, however unlike a man he was who suffered this, even more unlike was he who inflicted it.

On Anger, Book 3, Section 17 Book 3 · 57 of 121
Seneca — The Senator

Darius would have been cruel if he had taken all three sons to war. But how much more 'generous' was Xerxes! When Pythias, a father of five sons, begged for one to be excused from military service, Xerxes allowed him to choose which one. Then Xerxes tore the chosen son in half, placed one piece on each side of the road, and used this as a ritual sacrifice to purify his army. He got exactly what he deserved. His forces were crushed in battle and scattered everywhere in complete defeat. Xerxes himself walked among the corpses of his soldiers, seeing proof of his own downfall on all sides.

On Anger, Book 3, Section 16 Book 3 · 56 of 121
Facing Hardship Doing The Right Thing
Seneca — The Senator Original

He would have been harsh, had he taken them all to the war with him. How much more good-natured was Xerxes,[5] who, when Pythias, the father of five sons, begged for one to be excused from service, permitted him to choose which he wished for. He then tore the son whom the father had chosen into two halves, placed one on each side of the road, and, as it were, purified his army by means of this propitiatory victim. He therefore had the end which he deserved, being defeated, and his army scattered far and wide in utter rout, while he in the midst of it walked among the corpses of his soldiers, seeing on all sides the signs of his own overthrow.

On Anger, Book 3, Section 16 Book 3 · 56 of 121
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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